As you walk down the aisle of your local grocery store nowadays, you'll find more better-for-you snack and bakery choices. Companies know that consumers are reading ingredient labels more closely, and even private label is getting in on the game.
New and updated software suites available today help snack and bakery companies efficiently manage any supply-chain or finished-product traffic traveling in and out of the warehouse. Companies benefit from this software because their facilities always have what they need for production runs on hand at any given time, there's no lag in ingredient ordering.
Back in March, a report was released by Ethics On the Go, from the Culinary Vision Panel's Mindful Dining Initiative Project, that found that younger consumers have increased expectation for ethical snacks and grab-and-go-foods.
The tortilla chips market continues to evolve, catering to desires for bold and interestingly spiced products. Millennials, in particular, are craving adventurous and ethnic flavors. As a result, we're starting to see a wider range of new and interesting flavors hitting the market.
Puffed and extruded snacks are experiencing a renaissance. There are many different types of snacks in this category for shoppers to choose from, including traditional, healthier and even "free-from" options like gluten-free.
Frozen snacks and appetizers are staples in most households, pizza rolls, for example, are a quintessential American snack. And the freezer case has been slowly evolving to meet consumers' needs, branching out beyond typical heat-and-serve snacks.
Doughnuts now run the gamut from sweet to savory, and there are no flavor combinations that are off limits: you might see a Fruity Pebbles doughnut, and maple bacon has become commonplace. And growth continues.
As much as the tortilla category stays the same, it also has been striving to include more clean-label, non-GMO, and organic options. The standard white flour or corn tortilla that you see on grocery shelves will continue to persist, but consumers may see vegetable options like sweet potato tortillas alongside them, too.
Bakery snacks like snack cakes have always been an indulgent category. And even as nutritionally improved products continue to trend-forward in other industry categories, snack cake sales don’t waver.
Tortilla chips and tortillas are as American as they come, even though they are, of course, of Mexican origin. Manufacturers are putting their own spin on new products to entice consumers to buy more, and also to keep the category fresh.